by M B Panichi
Vinn said, “I’m sorry, Morgan. I don’t mean to make you feel bad.” He patted her arm. “I want you to live your life and be happy. You’re happy with Shaine. I’m not so old I can’t see that.” He smiled. “You girls go to Mars and have an adventure. And you, Shaine Wendt. You keep my daughter out of trouble, okay?”
Shaine flushed and grinned. “I’ll do my best,” she said.
Morgan muttered, “I’m not the troublemaker in this relationship.”
Vinn laughed. “Then you’ll have to fill me in on the trouble you make,” he decided, and scooped up a forkful of noodles. “This is very tasty.”
Morgan managed a weak smile. Her dad was trying to tell her he’d be all right. She wanted to believe that, though the guilt remained. Until now, she’d never been away from him for more than a few days at a time. She had never traveled, other than the occasional jaunt to the Luna City dome with her friends.
Shaine squeezed her leg under the table and Morgan took a deep breath, finding strength in Shaine’s touch. It would be all right. She would keep in touch with her dad, and it would be fine. Vinn had a lot of friends here, and he kept busy. He didn’t need a babysitter. She would miss him, and he would miss her. Change was tough.
Chapter Seventeen
“It’s been a long time, Captain Wendt,” the man on the screen said with a smile.
Shaine grinned at her former Earth Guard sergeant. He’d aged some over the years, his brown hair speckled with gray. A few more lines traced his face, but his eyes still had the same piercing glint, and his well-muscled frame remained strong. “Too long, Sarge. How’ve you been?”
“Eh, can’t complain, you know? The civvy thing has gone pretty well for me. But I bet this isn’t a social call, is it?”
She shrugged, a bit chagrined. “Unfortunately, no. I need to put together a core security team I can trust. I hoped you’d be able to help me.”
“I think we can work something out.”
“Thanks, Jens. I’m looking for a group of six to start with. We’ll be setting up security at the Mann-Maru mining site on Mars.”
He nodded thoughtfully. “So, people with spacer background. What kind of trouble are you expecting?”
Shaine laughed. “Expecting? The usual, I suppose. Trouble among the workers, possibly outside threats, though being on Mars should minimize that issue.”
“Will you need pilots? Fighter support?”
“Eventually, but not right away. We don’t have any fighter ships yet, just ground transport and the supply shuttles in and out.”
He glanced down and tapped a couple notes into a pad. “I have a couple people in mind already,” he said.
Shaine smiled. “Excellent. I need to do interviews and have the core group set five days from now. Is that possible?”
“Absolutely. Can I use this com code for them to contact you?”
“Yeah, this’ll do.” She tapped a couple of commands into her pad. “I just sent you an info packet with the job recs. If you need anything else, let me know.”
“Sounds good. I’ll be in touch.”
“Thanks, Sarge.”
“No problem, Captain.”
* * *
Shaine had her core security staff hired within three days. On the fourth day, the new team gathered at her apartment. Shaine stood in the kitchen going over her notes and observed the group as they chatted amongst themselves in her sitting room. Two were ex-Earth Guard. One was a former police officer. The others had trained with private security organizations. All were martial artists, sharpshooters and had spent time in space.
She was glad she’d gone through Sarge’s security staffing agency. Garren asked why she didn’t just pull people from Rogan’s Security Department. But she wanted her own people, loyal to her, and not with Rogan’s biases built in. She didn’t want Mann-Maru corporate involved any more than they needed to be. She wanted corporate to write the paychecks and handle the human resources. The rules of security operation would be hers and hers alone.
She planned to make Josef Waylin her second in command. He was the most experienced in the group, and she’d worked with him in Earth Guard Special Ops. Serious, intelligent, loyal and reliable, Josef was broad-shouldered, had no neck and hair still cut into a regulation flattop. She trusted him. She trusted his judgment. He’d been a good friend and a damned good soldier.
Seated on the couch next to Josef was a whip-thin young man with bright blue eyes and an intense gaze. His short golden hair crowned his head in wild disarray. His name was Thomas Reede, but Sarge referred to him as Whippet.
Ben Wycheski, Allim Haahn and Lukas Fells sat on the kitchen chairs she’d moved into the living room. All three men were straightforward security specialists. Nothing standout about them, though they were all very competent and motivated. Shaine considered them interchangeable. Each had solid skills and experience and would fit in anywhere she needed him.
Del Marin, the final member of the team, sat on the floor opposite the couch. She had honey-brown skin, black eyes and dreadlocks tied loosely at the nape of her neck. Del wasn’t tall, but under the form-fitting T-shirt she wore, Shaine could see the hard definition of muscle in her arms and upper body. Shaine noted the alert tension in the way Marin held herself and how she took in every detail of the room as she talked to Josef. Marin was only two years out of Earth Guard and had been in Special Ops as well.
When everyone was settled, Shaine walked over to join them. “Welcome,” she said. They nodded in response. She sat down next to Josef on the sofa. “I’ll assume you all know the purpose of this assignment and that you’ve all read the packets you were sent. I wanted to get us all together before we leave so that we can get to know each other a little bit and understand the chain of command. Everyone answers to me. Josef is my second on this team. If I’m unavailable, he will provide direction. Del is third in the command chain, and will act as my second if Josef is unavailable.” She looked around the group for confirmation, then turned and gestured to Morgan, who was sitting at the desk at the back of the room, working on her pad. Morgan stood and joined Shaine.
“This is my partner, Morgan Rahn. If I am unavailable, and she says that she speaks for me, her word is as good as mine. She’ll be my right hand outside the security chain of command.”
Again, she looked around the group, waiting for confirmations. She grinned. “Good. We’re going to have plenty of time to put things into place. We’ll be staying in the temporary dome while the primary facility is being completed. There is a group of geologists on-site doing core drilling and mapping. Sys ops is in charge of facilities and construction. We’ll be working with them to make sure the security systems are put into place as the new facilities are brought online. There is a skeleton maintenance crew on-site as well.”
Josef asked, “I assume that external site monitoring will be remote?”
“Initially, yes. No sense in being outside if we don’t need to be.”
Allim Haahn asked, “How long until they actually bring the mine online?”
Shaine shrugged. “There isn’t a set date. It’ll be at least a year or more. At this point, they’re still defining the breadth of the ore deposits, so there’s a lot of work to be done first.”
Whippet asked, “What’s on the immediate agenda?”
“Sys ops has started work on an emergency radiation shelter and the permanent living dome. So construction is first in terms of bringing more people up to the site.”
Whippet nodded. “Will we be vetting the incoming workers or is Mann-Maru corporate handling that?”
Shaine smiled. She liked the way this kid thought. She said, “We’ll have complete control over vetting security personnel. For site employees and construction personnel, Mann-Maru will do the usual background verification, but I want to take a look at everyone. We need to know who’s on-site.” Shaine narrowed her eyes at Whippet. “You have a hacking background. You want to take point on checking people out?”
He nodded. “Sure.”
Del Marin cocked her head. “What about Garren Maruchek? Does he have a clue, or are we babysitting him, too?”
Shaine felt Morgan stiffen beside her. “Garren’s good at what he does. He’s good at administration, at making the whole project work. He doesn’t need babysitting. He won’t have any direct control over security, but I’ll work with him and keep him in the loop. He’s coordinating construction plans and administrative functions. We won’t be at cross purposes. He can be trusted to have our best interests in mind.”
Del nodded, satisfied. Shaine knew Del had been in a situation where upper management had sabotaged security, and her caution was warranted. Being as far out as Mars, if the shit hit the fan, they needed management to be behind security, not getting in the way of keeping people safe.
Shaine was aware of each of the new security team giving Morgan the once-over, obviously trying to decide what her place was in the scheme of things, other than simply Shaine’s partner. Shaine had anticipated this, and told Morgan to expect it.
They took a break from the discussion and Morgan volunteered to fetch drinks for everyone. Whippet offered to help, and Shaine watched him follow Morgan to the small kitchen. She listened in on their interaction and watched out of the corner of her eye while the others talked quietly.
“Your ability to keep the press out of your face is amazing,” he commented.
Morgan looked at him, her expression blank. She said, “I have nothing to say to them.”
“You’re a security risk,” he countered.
“No more than Garren or Shaine. I’m neither helpless nor stupid.”
He cocked his head. “If you’re Wendt’s partner, I’d say you’re probably worth more than your shipping weight. From what Josef said, she wouldn’t waste her time with useless baggage.”
Morgan lifted her chin, met his gaze without flinching. “I’m going to assume that’s a compliment, because if it isn’t I’m going to kick your little blond ass.”
Laughing, he grinned and held his hands up in surrender. “And I don’t doubt for a second that you could. Seriously, those other guys, they don’t keep up with pop culture too much. I’m not sure if they’ve caught on to who you are. Del’s gonna be annoyed. The guys won’t care.”
“Why should she be annoyed?”
“She doesn’t like dealing with celebrities.”
Morgan laughed. “I’m no celebrity. I’m a mechanic with dubious parentage.”
“Yeah, well, your dubious parentage makes you untrustworthy in her eyes.”
Morgan shook her head. “Whatever.” They returned to the group with a bucket of iced bottles of beer, which Morgan set on the coffee table in the center of the sitting area. Grabbing a beer for herself, she retreated to Shaine’s desk with her pad.
Shaine continued to lead the discussion of the situation at the Martian mining site. Morgan listened while she surfed the net and wrote in her journal. She and Shaine had talked about what her role would be when they got to Mars. Technically, there was a lot she could do to be useful. She could help monitor the security cameras and communications. With her mechanic’s training, there would be work she could do in systems operations or maintenance. If any ships needed emergency servicing, she could help there too. Whatever happened, she wouldn’t be tagging along for the ride. She’d find something to do.
She knew it wasn’t likely she could simply go back to life the way it had been before Tarm Maruchek came into it. As much as she didn’t want to admit it, her status in life had changed. She’d gone from being just an average, ordinary systems mechanic to being the long-lost daughter of one of the wealthiest, most powerful men in the world. The press called it a “Cinderella Story” though they still insisted on trying to dig up dirt about her life.
She had to disconnect her personal com code to keep reporters from calling her. People she didn’t know wanted to know who she was, what she was like, what she did and how she felt about being Maruchek’s lost daughter. Even her friends got calls about her.
She knew that Tarm’s people—like Kyle Ellerand and others in security—worked hard to keep her off-limits from the press. At this very moment, there were probably Mann-Maru security operatives skulking about the apartment building, monitoring her whereabouts and keeping unwanted reporters from knocking on the door. For that she was thankful.
Going to Mars with Shaine helped everyone. It got her out of the spotlight. And maybe it would give her a new niche in life to call her own, because right now, she felt at loose ends.
Since she graduated from trade school, she’d been paying her own way, taking care of herself and working. Even when she still lived with her father, she worked and helped with expenses as much as he let her. Staying at the farm had been like being on vacation.
Morgan knew a permanent vacation wasn’t going to work for her. She couldn’t hide out for the rest of her life. Her father’s people didn’t want her working on the docks. They still worried about the threat of random terrorism against Mann-Maru, like the sabotaged space suit that had killed her best friend. She still shivered to think that she was the one who should have died. And she knew her father worried that more of his enemies would try to murder her the way Tyr Charun had.
Perhaps in a couple of years, when the novelty of her sudden celebrity had worn off, she could go back to her old job. For now, that wasn’t going to happen. And she wasn’t content to just sit back and wait it out.
Going to Mars was going to be a good thing, especially since she’d be there with Shaine.
Chapter Eighteen
Wearing a brand-new custom-fitted mechanic’s vac suit, Morgan stepped off the ramp of the supply shuttle and onto the rocky Martian surface. The sun glared dully and she blinked until her faceplate tinted to shade her eyes. The landscape was stark and barren. The sky was a pale blue instead of black, and the ground a rusty brown-red instead of gray. At least they’d have a true day/night cycle here, though, and gravity was a little closer to Earth-normal.
Morgan shuffled forward to stand beside Shaine. The rest of the security team disembarked behind them. Even if she was fully outfitted in a vac suit, she was glad to be out of the supply ship. The trip from Moon Base to Mars took a full three and a half days, with nothing to do but drink coffee, sleep or read. There was no net connection in transit and very little in the way of creature comforts since they were on a supply ship. They’d been restricted to a small barracks room separate from the ship’s crew and a tiny lounge with a processed food and beverage dispenser and a single vid screen, but only room for three to sit at a time.
Morgan looked curiously around the new construction.
A few hundred meters in front of her and to the right, the bare bones of a new living dome was framed in steel and concrete. Four stories high and about the size of a large city block, it would house and provide for several hundred people. To the right of the new dome was the foundation of a structure that would eventually be part of the ore processing facility. Beyond that, Morgan could see posts and flags stretching out toward the horizon and marking the mining site itself.
To the left, about fifty meters away, was the temporary working dome where they would be staying. It was prefab. Its curved walls were solid steel rather than transparent glassteel like the Moon Base dome. It was only a third the size of the new dome, but big enough to house nearly two hundred people. Facing them was an airlock entrance with a manual umbilical tunnel folded against it. When they were ready to unload supplies from the shuttle, the tunnel would be attached to the shuttle’s cargo bay hatch so that supplies could be unloaded directly into the dome without the need for vacuum suits.
Morgan felt the slight pressure of Shaine’s gloved hand on her shoulder. Her partner’s voice came across clearly in her helmet speakers.
“Home sweet home, huh?”
“I wouldn’t go that far.”
Shaine laughed.
Morgan smiled. She was with Shaine, she was out of
reach of the media and she was reasonably happy. If they were here on Mars, well, whatever. The living situation would be similar enough to Moon Base, even if space and creature comforts were more limited.
Besides, her brother Garren was on-site, and she was looking forward to seeing him. She enjoyed his dry, sarcastic sense of humor. He didn’t talk down to her and never treated her as being less worthy than him. They had a common interest in sports. Garren had played some grav ball in school. They both liked music, and, oddly enough, both liked similar slam-thrash bands.
“Come on, let’s get inside.”
Shaine led the small group across the gravel-strewn surface to the temporary dome. She keyed the controls for the outer airlock and they moved quickly into the tight space. The hatch slid shut and sealed behind them. Morgan automatically focused on the red light in the ceiling. After a minute or two, the light shifted to orange, then yellow and finally green. The inner door slid open.
Morgan stepped into a warehouse space lined with all manner of supplies and building materials. The back of the warehouse contained shelves of tools and three work bays. The entire storage area was well lit and tidy. She glanced down at the atmosphere readout on her wrist, then reached up and popped the seal on her helmet and lifted it off. She held her helmet at her side as she took a better look around. Shaine and the others did the same.
A man strode toward them from across the warehouse. He was a large fellow with a beefy build. Strong arms and big hands extruded from his cut-off work shirt. Morgan thought he looked perhaps a little younger than her dad. He was dark-skinned, his black hair peppered with gray.
“Hello,” he called, his face breaking into a wide, white smile as he spotted Shaine. “Captain Wendt! Welcome!”
Shaine stepped toward him and clasped his outstretched hand in her still-gloved one. “Hey, Joe. Been a while. You’re looking good, old man.”